Add-A-Vampire

The new season of Being Human is shit, i’n it? (That was my attempt at British slang. I’ll stop now.)

So, yeah, cast changes. Which I’m okay with on a certain level. When Tom showed up in the first episode, I was all “Oh, cool. Tom’s still there.” I like Tom. And I think Hal is a more interesting vampire than Mitchell was (There’s only so much “why am I evil?” screaming and crying you can take. Hal’s version of rigid control over his “why am I evil?” is much more interesting to watch). I even thought the first episode did a pretty decent job of walking George off the set (Who knew pictures of the moon were so…dangerous?). And let’s be honest – Annie can’t carry a show. Annie can barely carry an episode. So she needs some back-up.

But I’m not buying it. The new season had to start from a backwards place and ramp back up to where the last season was at and it’s failing, by following its own formula. We need some “alone time” with these new characters to grow into their relationship. Instead, we’re getting endless walk-ons with big-bad-of-the-week and some escalating vampire war that no one cares about. I hate to say it (because I generally hate this), but the show needs an American-style lengthy season. Or it needs to delay the apocalypse storyline somehow and return to what the show used to do well.

A friend pointed this foible the show has, and now I notice it every episode and it annoys me – the show has no mythology. Every episode, someone demonstrates a hereto-unmentioned supernatural power with no explanation on how that fits into the overall scheme of supernaturalness. It’s the fourth season – the time for exploring your supernatural-mystical-power space is over by at least two seasons. Follow your established rules and stop introducing new ones. Last week’s episode was particularly egregious with two new ‘ghosty’ powers that will probably never show back up.